Method of knitting



Patented Oct. 11, 1938 I UNITED STATES METHOD OF KNITTING Charles La Villette, Ozone Park, N. Y., assignor to Nusbaum Knitters, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application October 30, 1935, Serial No. 47,416

5 Claims.

My present invention relates to methods of knitting and aims to provide methods which are simple andeasy to practise and which result-in the production of a novel fabric, the detailed construction of which will be fully described in later portions of this specification.

My present invention further relates tothe novel fabric produced by means of the methods of the present invention, and further aims to provide a, fabric which has incorporated therein, without involving any increase in the cost of production of knitted fabrics as presently made, certain features which enable the same to be utilized in a much Wider fashion than was heretofore possible.

In the accompanying specification I shall describe and in the annexed drawing show several illustrative embodiments of the methods of the present invention and the knitted fabric pro duced thereby. It is, however, to be clearly understood that variations thereof may be made Without the exercise of invention, and within. the scope of the claims hereto appended.

Before describing my invention in detail, I deem it advisable, briefly, to refer to the prior art in the field to which the present invention relates, and to point out the limitations thereof and the manner in which the present invention overcomes and eliminates the same. I

It has heretofore been proposed to knit a fabric in such a fashion that it acquired a diagonal appearance. This was accomplished by racking. It follows that if a fabric isknitted diagonally in one direction, its design can be formed into a horizontal V by reversing the sequence of the racking after a certain length thereof has been knitted by racking in the first direction. However, it has not heretofore been known how to knit a fabric, the courses of which presented a vertical V or the many ramifications thereof. These disadvantages are eliminated by means of the present invention, and I have provided methods whereby a fabric is made which has a start or first course which is in the shape of a vertical V at an angle of approximately 135 or 45 degrees to their vertical wales. I have further provided methods which enable the production of a knitted fabric having the end thereof likewise in the shape of a V which may be parallel to the sides of the V of the starting course ormay have its sides at an angle of approximately. degrees to the sides of the starting course. Obviously the fabric can be made so that the start or finish or both can be horizontal and vertical Vshaving their points up or down can be inserted anywhere in the body portion of the fabric, or a series of straight courses can be alternated with V-shaped or chevron-shaped courses. Furthermore, the fabric may be made with colored chevron stripes knitted therein either parallel to the start or finish, or oppositeto each other. Finally, the fabric produced'by the practice of the methods of the present invention is reversible, having practically the same appearance on both sides.

In the accompanying drawing:-

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary, schematic View of the apex portion of a V-shaped fabric produced by the practice of the methods of the present invention, and a similar view of the portion of the fabric which includes one of the side arms of the V and the adjacent vertical wales of the. fabric itself;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of one type of fabric which can be produced by the practice of the methods of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a similar, fragmentary view of a modified form of fabric which can be produced by the methods of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2 illustrating still another form of fabric which can be produced by the practice of the methods of the present invention; 7

Fig. 5 is a plan View showing the arrangement of the knitting needles of a double-bed knitting machine preparatory to starting the knitting of a fabric in accordance .with the present invention; 7

Fig. 6 is a similar view of the same with the lower or front bed racked over one needle; and

Fig. 7 is a similar View of the same having the front or lower bed racked over'two needles.

' Referring now more in detail to the aforesaid illustrative embodiments of the methods of the present invention, and the products resulting therefrom, and with particular reference to the drawing illustrating the same, the numeral I!) generally designates a needle bed of a doublebank, fiat knitting machine, and the numeral ll generally designates the other bed thereof. For the purpose of description in this specification, I shall refer to the bed If! as the'rear bed, and thebed l l as the front bed. It is, however, to be clearly understood that they may be reversed, and the arrangements of the needles hereinafter described in connection with the rear bed may apply to the front bed and the arrangementsof the needles hereinafter described in connection with the front bed may apply to the rear bed.

Secured to the front bed H is an arm I2 carrying pins I3 adapted to cooperate with opposite faces of a cam I4 which are stepped in such a manner as to cause the front bed I I to be racked or shifted sidewise with respect to the rear bed IIJ. Obviously the front bed II may be racked in either direction depending upon the direction of the rotation of the cam I4, the latter being operable either automatically (not shown) or manually by means of the handle I5.

The needles in the front bed II are arranged therein so that they are in alternately raised and lowered positions; in other words, alternately permanently in action and out of action. Those which are raised I have designated by the reference character I6, and those which are lowered I have designated by the reference character II. The needles in the rear bed II] are arranged for a portion of the length of the bed in a manner similar to those in the front bed I I, that is, alternately raised and lowered, or alternately in action and out of action. The needles which are in action in the rear bed II) I have designated by the reference character I8 and those which are out of action I have designated by the reference character I9. The needles of the rear bed I6 just described correspond to or are intended to produce one of the sides of the V which will hereinafter be described. At the point where I desire the apex of the V I either raise or lower two consecutive needles, that is, I position two consecutive needles so that they are either in action or out of action. These needles are provided with the reference character 20. I now proceed to arrange the balance of the needles in the rear bed III alternately lowered and raised, in other words, out of action and in action, which arrangement is in opposite sequence to the needles of the rear bed arranged before the point corresponding to the apex of the V. In this portion of the rear bed I 0 the lowered needles are provided with the reference character 2|, and the raised needles are provided with the reference character 22. The needles arranged alternately in this portion of the rear bed II] correspond to, and produce the remaining side of the V which will hereinafter be more fully described.

When the needles of the rear bed II are arranged as just described with a single alternation of sequence, and the knitting is carried out as hereinafter described, the fabric produced will take the form illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawing; that is, the fabric will have a start in the form of a V and a finish in the same form as the start. In Fig. 2 the numeral 23 designates one of the sides of the V, the numeral 24 desig-' nates the other side of the V, and the numeral 25 designates the upwardly directed apex of the V. The vertical wales of the fabric are designated by the numeral 26. One of the sides of the V at the finish is designated by the reference character 21, the other side thereof, by the reference character 28, and the apex by the numeral 29. It will be noted that the sides 23 and 24 are at an angle to each other of approximately degrees. It will further be noted that the angle between either of the sides 23 or 26 and the vertical wales 26 of the fabric itself is approximately or 45 degrees, and it will finally be noted. that the V at the finish of the material is parallel to the V at the start of the material.

If it is desired to produce a fabric having more than one V at the start, I arrange the needles in the rear bed II] so that there is more than one alternation of the sequence thereof. In other Words, I arrange these needles so that at more than one point I position two consecutive needles either raised or lowered, and follow each of such points with an alternation of the sequence of the needles immediately preceding each of such points. Thus any number of Vs can be incorporated into the fabric and I am not limited merely to two Vs as shown in Fig. 3 of the drawing wherein the numeral 30 designates one of the Vs and the numeral 3| designates another of the Vs. At this point, before describing the fabric illustrated in Fig. 4 of the drawing, I deem it advisable to set forth the manner in which the knitting is carried out after the needles have been arranged in any one of the several modes previously described. I shall, however, limit my description to the mode of operation of the machine to produce the fabric illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawing which I might designate as the basic fabric. I call this fabric the basic fabric because other fabrics which may be produced by the practice of my methods are merely modifications of the same starting fabric.

The locks or cams which operate the needles on both the front and the rear beds of the machine are arranged or set to make a cardigan stitch so that the resultant fabric is ribbed and is of the type known as a full cardigan fabric. With the needles and cams arranged as described, I knit a course, let us assume, from left to right. I then rack the front needle bed II to the left, the distance of one needle. This is accomplished by operating the cam M. With the front needle bed so racked I knit another course, obviously, from right to left, after which I again rack the front needle bed to the left, the distance of one needle and knit another course, this time, obviously, from left to right. I now rack the front needle bed I I in the direction opposite to which it had been racked on the two previous occasions, in other words, to the right, a distance of one needle and run a course which will be from right to left, after which I again rack the front needle bed to the right, a distance of one needle and run another course from left to right. By following closely the racking movements it will be noted that at this point the needles have been returned to their original positions, having been racked twice in one direction, and twice in the opposite direction By continuing to repeat the racking operations just described, I obtain the fabric shaped as illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawing. By referring to Fig. l of the drawing, there can be observed in detail the courses taken by the yarn in the production of this fabric, and particularly those portions immediately adjacent the apex 25, and the area immediately adjacent the arm 23 of the V and the connected vertical wale 26.

In Fig. 6 of the drawing I have shown the positions of the needles and the beds carrying the same when the front bed II has been racked to the left, a distance of one needle, and in Fig. 7 I have shown the arrangements of the needles and the beds with the front bed racked to the left, a distance of two needles.

If it is desired to produce the fabric set forth in Fig. 4 of the drawing in which fabric the finish has the sides 32 and 33 of the V with the apex 34 thereof extending downwardly instead of upwardly and parallel to the V at the start of the fabric, I proceed in the same manner as in connection with the fabric'illustrated in Fig. 2, but upon reaching the point in the knitting of the fabric when I desire to reverse the chevron effect, I run an uneven number of courses without any racking at all. The result is to bring the locks to a point opposite to that in which they were when the original racking started and then I proceed to rack as previously described. with 1 the result that the V becomes inverted, and extends downwardly instead of upwardly.

It is obvious that by means of variations in the arrangements of the needles on the rear bed 10, and by changing the number and sequence of the rackings, I can produce varying designs and effects, the details of which I do not deem it necessary to set forth herein. It is thought that one skilled in the art will obviously understand such variations upon learning the basic principles already set forth in detail.

This completes the description of the methods of the present invention and the products resulting therefrom. It will be noted that such methods are simple to practise, requiring no additions to standard knitting machinery, and result in various fabrics, the uses of which will be obvious to those skilled in. the art to which the present invention relates. The fabric herein disclosed whether alone or combined with straight knitting may be used for scarfs, neck pieces, wristlets, vests, blankets, garments, hats, designs, etc., as well as striped and other types of borders and trimmings.

What I claim as my invention is:

l. The herein described method of knitting which consists in the steps of arranging the needles of one of the beds of a double-bed knitting machine in a predetermined operating sequence, then arranging the needles of the other bed of the machine in a plurality of predetermined operating sequences, thereafter knitting a fabric on the machine by racking one of the beds thereof a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction and operating the machine to knit a single row of fabric, then again racking a predetermined distance in the same direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking a predetermined distance in the opposite direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking back to the original position and operating the machine to knit another single row fabric, and thereafter repeating said racking and knitting operations for the production of a predetermined length of fabric.

2. The herein described method of knitting which consists in the steps of arranging the needles of one of the beds of a double-bed knitting machine in a predetermined operating sequence, then arranging the needles of the other bed of the machine in a plurality of predetermined oppositely disposed operating sequences, thereafter knitting a fabric on the machine by racking one of the beds thereof a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction and operating the machine toknit a single row of fabric, then again racking a predetermined distance in the same direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking a predetermined distance in the opposite direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking back to the original position and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, and thereafter repeating said racking and knitting operations for the production of a predetermined length of fabric.

3. The herein described method of knitting which consists in the steps of .arranging the needles of one of the beds of a double-bed knitting machine alternately in and out of action, then arranging the needles of the other bed of the machine in a plurality of predetermined oper-, ating sequences, thereafter knitting a fabric on the machine by racking one of the beds thereof a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction and operating the machine to knit a single row of fabric, then again racking a predetermined distance in the same direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking a predetermined distance in the opposite direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking back to the original position and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, and thereafter repeating said racking and knitting operations for the production of a predetermined length of fabric.

4. The herein described method of knitting which consists in the steps of arranging the needles of one of the beds of a double-bed knittig machine alternately in and out of action, then arranging the needles of the other bed of the machine in a plurality of predetermined oppositely disposed operating sequences, thereafter knitting a fabric on the machine by racking one of the beds thereof a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction and operating the machine to knit a single row of fabric, then again racking a predetermined distance in the same direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking a predetermined distance in the opposite direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking back to the original position and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, and thereafter repeating said racking and knitting operations for the production of a predetermined length of fabric.

5. The herein described method of knitting which consists in the steps of arranging the needles of one of the beds of a double-bed knitting machine alternately in and out of action, then arranging the needles of the other bed of the machine so that a predetermined number thereof are alternately in and out of action and a predetermined number thereof, immediately adjacent the last needle out of action of said first mentioned predetermined number, are alternately out of and in action, thereafter knitting .a fabric on the machine by racking one of the beds thereof a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction and operating the machine to knit a single row of fabric, then again racking a predetermined distance in the same direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking a predetermined distance in the opposite direction and operating the machine to knit another single row of fabric, then racking back to the original position and operating the machine to knit another single row 

